I got an ARC in exchange of an honest review.
3,75. Not my favorite Malone book. Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty great, and although rather different from her usual work, the characters were round and the story moved at a steady pace, though a bit weird, making jumps without actually stating it, leaving you to figure it out four pages in. It’s an interesting and entertaining read, just nothing to write home about.
I had trouble getting into the shipping; not because of the poliamory (while not something I actively look for, it doesn’t bother me and I won’t avoid a book just because of it like I do with age-gap), but because aside from the sexual attraction they have for each other (everyone is hot and available, you know the drill), there’s not a speck of romantic feel to the relationship. They just work so much better as best friends, a really tightly knit group that is just so connected that they can practically read each other’s thoughts. It just feels rather forced; their interactions would feel much more organic and real if things stayed platonic. Like the platonic soulmate bond between Steve and Robin from Stranger Things so prevalent on fan fictions.
I also couldn’t for the life of me make myself like Silverine: her blind faith in a glaringly obvious broken system, the privilege of being raised by magic parents she doesn’t value or even recognize, the way she doesn’t even try to empathize with Teagan when she’s feeling scared and out of her depth, the ‘this is how I feel so everyone should feel like this and if someone doesn’t they’re crazy’, how she’s willing (at first, they manage to change her mind) to leave someone she calls ‘best friend’ behind if it means not getting in trouble… She’s also the de facto leader of the group, but not because she’s a good leader or because she deserves to be, but because the other three are too shy and more of a follower type for one of them to be the leader.
All these little moments pertaining to either one of these things just kept me from truly loving the book as a whole, having to find enjoyment in the snippets in between, which just wasn’t enough.
Also, Gabriela’s dad sucks, he may be nice and all, but he’s definitely not a good father; making your child doubt herself like that, making sure she know you expect her to fail and how disappointed in her you’ll be. WTF, man. Oh, and Bennett deserves to get slapped so hard he bruises.
Ok. Done. Bye!